The long range objective of this project is to understand at the molecular level how proteins are synthesized in eukaryotes and how the process of protein synthesis is controlled at the levels of translation and transcription. The topics of current interest are: 1) the isolation and characterization of biologically active messenger RNA from eukaryotic cells. 2) The translation of eukaryotic mRNA in cell-free systems. 3) The identification and purification of immunoprecipitable forms of specific proteins synthesized in cell-free systems. 4) The induction of mRNA for specific proteins by plant hormones. 5) The partial purification of specific induced mRNA from barley. 6) The cloning of the gene sequences for alpha-amylase, and eventually for other hormone-induced enzymes, in the barley genome. 7) The use of DNA probes to study the expression of specific genes in barley. 8) The possible processing of pre-mRNA for alpha-amylase.